thats a good list pieterV. it reads more like the contents of a good art foundations book A list like that can be quite overwhelming tho, i like to think of the visual art fundamentals in a design sense, as the elements and the principles. The elements being tone, shape, line, texture, space, colour, form and the principles of repetition, balance, contrasts, gradation, scale, dominance. The elements being the visual ingredients of an image and the principles as general rules/ideas of how to successfully organise and relate the principles in an image.. With the goal of creating unity and harmony.. Each of the principles/elements have their own sets of ideas which pieter outlined alot of in his post.. then there are representational drawing fundamentals like perspective, anatomy, gesture etc which i think is moving more toward the fundamentals of figure drawing/ character/enviro design/ creating images from the imagination.. hope that helps

Wow - thanks for all the great posts everyone. Great list PieterV! I like the main categories you've defined. Those are certainly all important aspects of visual art that go into each piece in varying degrees. I think if one focuses on the fundamentals though, most of those take care of themselves - they all fall out of "getting the fundamentals right". That is one of the fascinating things to me - the fundamentals are pretty basic - yet infinite in their expression.

As one of my painting teachers said in response to "How do you paint water?" (a very common question by the way). His response was something along the lines of, "Water is no different than anything else - it's pretty easy really. You only have to get four things right: the right value, the right color, the right shape in the right place. Oh, and with the right edge - so five." Then he would smile mischievously and return to painting.

Richard Schmid lays it out even more simply than that - there are only TWO THINGS you can get wrong - "You paint something in that isn't there or you leave something important out that is part of the subject's character". Granted, they're both using somewhat humorous extremes to illustrate an important point - the fundamentals are what it all comes down to.

Good teachers will always help students understand and master the fundamentals so that the student may express their own vision with confidence and power.

It might be a bit off topic or at least not everybody will agree with me. But what is also of higher import—especially in a world with such a fast pace at basically everything—is patience!
I have experienced many times, that because everything needs to go "stronger, faster, harder" nowadays many talented people with great potential throw away their possibilities of becoming a good artist just because of how long it takes for a skill as complex as painting to develop. So, preparing yourself to be, work and develop within a pace reasonable for the individual is also something I dare calling "fundamentals". Without patience there will be no art. Opinions on this matter are highly welcome—I always enjoy a good talk.

---»Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; for the world is full of talented, unsuccessful people. Genius will not; for unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; for the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and dedication alone are omnipotent.«― Calvin Coolidge